We started the day heading toward Willcox, AZ, for the final day of Wings Over Willcox, an annual celebration of the Sandhill Cranes that are nowhere near the town. But they make a great excuse to have an annual celebration. The cranes are actually nesting quite a distance south at the Whitewater Draw. When we got to Willcox, all that was happening was a series of seminars in the community center, so we regrouped and headed south to see what we would see.
On the way to Wilcox, however, we passed once again through the very scenic Texas Canyon. 
The State of Arizona has made Texas Canyon quite accessible by placing highway rest stops in the middle of it, so we could take lots of pictures.You can see several of them in our Texas Canyon Web Album.
At the very moment we pulled into our parking spot at Texas Canyon, our odometer reached a milepost- 50,000 miles! You can see that we had stopped moving before I attempted this shot!
From Willcox, we followed AZ 186 to Kansas Settlement Road, because that sounded like a good road to explore.It turned out to be very interesting. We imagine the Kansas Settlement area was settled by folks from Kansas who appreciated the flat arable land. 
We found the Bonita Bean Company, selling only the best “Desert Mulie Brand” pinto beans.
And the Faria Dairy, with thousands of milkers, all of whom seemed to be pretty contented.
The entire property was open and available; so we drove in and looked around. The place was amazingly well groomed; even the areas around the large pens had recently been raked, and the aroma, while noticeable, was not at all unpleasant. In an adjacent lot we saw hundreds of calf shelters in rows, and this little fella came out to the fence to say hello.
Along the way, we passed the LeRoy Airport, and had to take pictures.
Not much to look at, but it’s a viable privately owned airport, open to sport aviation, and owned by a pilot named Philippe LeRoy. Any relation? We are trying to find out.
We stopped in the town of Sunsites for a late lunch at Margie’s Corner Cafe, where we had the best chicken fried steak we have ever eaten, complete with real mashed and delightfully lumpy potatoes with a white gravy. Yum!
Suzy got this picture of the back bar at Margie’s.
We’ll tell you more about our day next time. We visited the “ghost town” of Pearce, Arizona, and wormed our way through some very iffy back roads of Sunsites to find our way home.
Thanks for visiting us and sharing … Our Life on Wheels.
I love cows and that little calf was adorable. Looks like you guys had a great drive and the pics are wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI sure liked the sounds of Margie's Corner Store & what you had there. When anybody mentions mashed potatos & gravy I get the feed bag strapped on right away for sure. Been by it a few times but we're always hesitant about little places like that until somebody else lives to recommend it. Thanks for putting yourselves on the line:))
ReplyDeleteWell, I've never had chicken fried steak, but that whole meal at Margie's sounded pretty darn good. Thanks for the tour and pictures - I'll be checking our routes again and maybe making more modifications!
ReplyDeleteThis airport is something! It should be called international airport :)
ReplyDeleteWe love taking back roads ourselves (when time and distance permits) esp byways and scenic routes. it is so much more fun than driving the hwy.